Importing Intel Hex

Bug reports concerning HxD.
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Mix-e
Posts: 3
Joined: 25 Jun 2021 10:27

Importing Intel Hex

Post by Mix-e »

I get an error when I try importing an intel hex file in to version 2.5.0.0. The intel hex file only a few K big was auto generated and looks to be correct.
Error XmlHexImporter.pas, line 651
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hdx intel hex import error.JPG
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Maël
Site Admin
Posts: 1454
Joined: 12 Mar 2005 14:15

Re: Importing Intel Hex

Post by Maël »

Please provide the file, otherwise it's impossible to fix the error.
Mix-e
Posts: 3
Joined: 25 Jun 2021 10:27

Re: Importing Intel Hex

Post by Mix-e »

The problem seems to be that the last 2 lines in the file are

:000D9A0158
:00000001FF

These line were generated by the compiler.
If I remove them, then the data part of the file loads okay
I hope this will give you enough information.
Maël
Site Admin
Posts: 1454
Joined: 12 Mar 2005 14:15

Re: Importing Intel Hex

Post by Maël »

If you look at the official documentation of the Intel Hex file format, you will see that it mentions the end of file record (last page of the PDF above).
The following of your two records has a RECTYPE of 01:

Code: Select all

:000D9A0158
       ^^
Which makes it an end of file record.

And as the official Intel documentation states for EOF records:
LOAD OFFSET -- This field contains 030303030H, the hexadecimal encoding of the ASCII characters ’0000’, since this field is not used for this record.
In other words the load offset should be zero. But since it is not used, I suppose you could ignore it.

The assertion error in HxD is a safety measure to detect invalid files and unexpected data. It's not a bug in HxD, but I suppose you could ignore this file format error, without too much harm. At least for reading it makes no difference.

Your Intel Hex file ends with two EOF records, the first one cited above is strictly speaking incorrect, even if you could say the load offset will most likely be ignored by most software. After that a second EOF record follows, which should never happen. Both these issues should be addressed in the software generating the file, since it might hint at other issues (though probably just too generic coding).

It would be a good idea to point out these errors to the compiler manufacturer.
Maël
Site Admin
Posts: 1454
Joined: 12 Mar 2005 14:15

Re: Importing Intel Hex

Post by Maël »

I edited the post again, please see the updates.

I will see if I can "fix" this without any harm.
Mix-e
Posts: 3
Joined: 25 Jun 2021 10:27

Re: Importing Intel Hex

Post by Mix-e »

Could make this a warning instead of an error, at least it would load and display the data.
Thanks
Maël
Site Admin
Posts: 1454
Joined: 12 Mar 2005 14:15

Re: Importing Intel Hex

Post by Maël »

I'll see what I can do, but the current architecture has no way to provide warnings in the GUI (would need an extra log window) and the class that implements this has no facility to report anything but errors and success, but I'll see what I can do.

Still, please point out this bug to the manufacturer, because a correct file should just have one EOF record.
Maël
Site Admin
Posts: 1454
Joined: 12 Mar 2005 14:15

Re: Importing Intel Hex

Post by Maël »

I reviewed the entire logic, and it will not affect the result, if I add some countermeasures.
So the importer now ignores these two types of file format errors safely and therefore silently.

Solved in current development version.
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